Is the element count right? I always thought it it counted the number of elements, and that 78-22 split is by weight, not by atoms. Normalizing by the average atomic mass (Na: 22.98, K: 39.10) we'd get Na .324, K .676.

Edit: I'm also not sure about the Thermal Conductivity units. Game expects it on Watts per meter Kelvin (W / mK), reference lists it as 0.232 W / cm, which doesn't seem to have the same dimension, never mind having the same value?

Post by someusername6 on Mar 18, 2017 1:52:19 GMT

Inspired by this post, I looked up very high temperature coolants -- thinking that maybe a higher melting point will give us something better than just plain Sodium.

I found FLiNaK, and then its properties (and for more coolants) if anyone else wants to help modeling them. I don't do much reactor optimizing, so I don't know that this is better than Sodium, but it does have a higher specific heat.

Is the element count right? I always thought it it counted the number of elements, and that 78-22 split is by weight, not by atoms. Normalizing by the average atomic mass (Na: 22.98, K: 39.10) we'd get Na .324, K .676.

Edit: I'm also not sure about the Thermal Conductivity units. Game expects it on Watts per meter Kelvin (W / mK), reference lists it as 0.232 W / cm, which doesn't seem to have the same dimension, never mind having the same value?

Post by nerd1000 on Mar 18, 2017 23:47:10 GMT

I think if you're looking for a ultra high temperature liquid reactor coolant the best option would be a brazing alloy like Copper-Silver eutectic. All the same the melting points of these metals are very high, so high that you could never shut the reactor down and hope to re-start it. It would be more practical to use a gas such as helium as the coolant.

We dig deep down into the very building blocks of life, seeking to twist them to our will. We destroy mass itself to turn its energy to our ends. The speed and intelligence of our machines grows without bound. But even the power of gods isn't enough. Ever hungry, we turn our eyes to the stars...

I sure hope there's someone else more advanced out there. If we're the first, the universe is screwed.

Post by nerd1000 on Mar 19, 2017 8:41:39 GMT

Liquids are superior at transmitting/transferring heat. Building a gas reactor may hugely increase reactor size for a given power output.

but you need to be able to build it right? filling the core and pipes with molten copper will be tricky business.

We dig deep down into the very building blocks of life, seeking to twist them to our will. We destroy mass itself to turn its energy to our ends. The speed and intelligence of our machines grows without bound. But even the power of gods isn't enough. Ever hungry, we turn our eyes to the stars...

I sure hope there's someone else more advanced out there. If we're the first, the universe is screwed.